Regardless of intent, this was very touching. We've all been there at some point. An invite, a compliment, or a simple smile has a big impact on a person.
As someone who was in his shoes when I moved to a new town right before high-school started, and spent the first few weeks of the school year sitting by myself. Until a girl who is now basically my surrogate sister asked me to sit with her and her friends.... this girl probably has no idea how much relief or emotion that Guy is probably feeling knowing someone gave enough of a shit to even reach out.
One of my favorite stories from high school was when I was a freshman and I saw this other kid walking along and he was kind of dorky and gangly and such. This other kid started to try to trip him and was laughing about it. Along came these two seniors and they seemed massive to me. They were two of the most popular people in school and very athletic. One of them yelled out "DUDE!" and the other kids looked up. The dorky kid cringed as if he was waiting for these two "jocks" to start messing with him too. The two seniors then zeroed in on the mean kid and started saying 'you think that's cool, you think that's funny? You want us to treat you like that? How would you like it if we tried to trip you? Fuck off kid". Both of them scrambled away and the two seniors laughed and continued on their way.
That small act of standing up for someone... it didn't cost them anything but it probably affected both of those other people (and me) a lot. I use that story to show my kids how it doesn't take much to help someone out and do it in a way that doesn't hurt anything or escalate things. It also was a great moment to not judge someone by how they look. Seeing two older, popular kids do that like it was no big thing to them just made me feel so good.
rchilly on September 13rd, 2018 at 23:53 UTC »
Regardless of intent, this was very touching. We've all been there at some point. An invite, a compliment, or a simple smile has a big impact on a person.
Acmonidae on September 14th, 2018 at 02:14 UTC »
As someone who was in his shoes when I moved to a new town right before high-school started, and spent the first few weeks of the school year sitting by myself. Until a girl who is now basically my surrogate sister asked me to sit with her and her friends.... this girl probably has no idea how much relief or emotion that Guy is probably feeling knowing someone gave enough of a shit to even reach out.
It’s seriously the simplest kindnesses.
ZombieBoobies on September 14th, 2018 at 03:23 UTC »
One of my favorite stories from high school was when I was a freshman and I saw this other kid walking along and he was kind of dorky and gangly and such. This other kid started to try to trip him and was laughing about it. Along came these two seniors and they seemed massive to me. They were two of the most popular people in school and very athletic. One of them yelled out "DUDE!" and the other kids looked up. The dorky kid cringed as if he was waiting for these two "jocks" to start messing with him too. The two seniors then zeroed in on the mean kid and started saying 'you think that's cool, you think that's funny? You want us to treat you like that? How would you like it if we tried to trip you? Fuck off kid". Both of them scrambled away and the two seniors laughed and continued on their way.
That small act of standing up for someone... it didn't cost them anything but it probably affected both of those other people (and me) a lot. I use that story to show my kids how it doesn't take much to help someone out and do it in a way that doesn't hurt anything or escalate things. It also was a great moment to not judge someone by how they look. Seeing two older, popular kids do that like it was no big thing to them just made me feel so good.